journal features

a tough year is over

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Vancouver, 2001.12.31

Well, the year is coming to a close at last. A year during which I injured myself at the gym; was woken in the middle of the night to the sounds of a woman in the neighborhood being raped; got into a scrap in a bar; broke up with my fiancee; lost a grandmother; had to move, twice; spent two months on my mom's couch and another four months fruitlessly looking for work; and went into debt. It was also a year during which I got my first taste of surfing, inline skating, and archery; turned my novel into a (semi-) coherent work; visited New Zealand for the first time and Mexico for the second; witnessed an incredible meteor shower; spotted my first turkey vultures (a bird I'd always known was in Ontario, but had never seen); and moved into my first home without a room-mate, lover, or family member in six years. It was also a year during which I made the decision to work to live rather than to live to work. All in all, a year I can appreciate.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force